Algae ID and removal tips

[Tom Sawyer]

Hello, I've attached multiple images of an algae that is on my plants and spider wood and was on the sand until I got Corydoras that sift through the dirt all day. It's on my vallisneria, Christmas moss, amazon sword, saggitaria, spider wood, and other miscellaneous plants in the tank.

What type of algae is this? What would you recommend to remove it without harming the cycle, Corydoras, sparkling gouramis, honey gourami, black neon tetras, and a few before snails?

 

[fearlessfisch]

I am not good at identifying types of algae, but I think the recommendations for addressing most green algae are pretty similar and involve balancing light, nutrients and CO2. There are some good threads on algae control here if you do a search. I don't think any of the typical methods should disrupt a cycle.

You will probably need to reduce light--the length of time lights are on and intensity of light. Limit feeding and do partial water changes to control nitrates. Flourish Excel used on a schedule can help in a low-tech tank. Remove as much of the algae as you can manually. You can spot-treat with hydrogen peroxide if you want; do a search on how to do this.

What helped me most was adding a lights-out period in the middle of the day (I do four hours of lights on, a couple of hours off, then four hours on again), and adding a lot more plants to the aquarium to outcompete the algae. I also added pothos to my filter baskets to consume nitrates--explained about it in this thread: https://www.aquariumadvice.com/foru...ntified-pest-algae-spreading-fast-374169.html

Good luck.